Cami Stone (born Wilhelmine Camille Honorine Schammelhout; June 27, 1892 – March 3, 1975) was a Belgian photographer. She had a certain notoriety in the Berlin of the 1920s, then in Brussels. She was invited to participate in the famous

Film und Foto The ''Neues Sehen'', also known as New Vision or ''Neue Optik'', was a movement, not specifically restricted to photography, which was developed in the 1920s. The movement was directly related to the principles of the Bauhaus. ''Neues Sehen'' con ...

exhibition in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

in 1929. After her work was rediscovered, her photographs were put up for sale in major auction houses.

Biography

Camille Honorine Schammelhout was born in

Vilvoorde Vilvoorde (; ; ; historically known as ''Filford'' in English) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city in the Halle-Vilvoorde district (''arrondissement'') of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Bra ...

, Belgium, in 1892. She died in 1975 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

(Netherlands) , at the age of 83. During the First World War, she lived in La Haye and London where her boyfriend, Sasha Stone, a member of the US army met in New York , was stationed . In 1918, she ran an import-export business in New York. In Paris, she was introduced to photography by Stone. She married him in Berlin in 1922, where they settled in 1918 In 1928, Cami and Sasha opened the Atelier Stone, which produced architectural and advertising photographs. Stone is one of the most important photographers of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

. She portrayed many personalities of the time such as

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

Anna Sten Anna Sten (December 3, 1908November 12, 1993, born Anna Petrivna Fesak) was a Ukrainian-born American actress. She began her career in stage plays and films in the Soviet Union, then traveled to Germany, where she starred in several films. Her p ...

Lou Albert-Lasard Lou Albert-Lasard (1885 in Metz – July 1969 in Paris) was an Expressionist painter. She was born in 1885 in Metz (then part of Germany) to a Jewish banking family. From 1908 until 1914, she studied art in Munich, where she and her sister, ...

, and

Erwin Piscator Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator (17 December 1893 – 30 March 1966) was a German theatre director and Theatrical producer, producer. Along with Bertolt Brecht, he was the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio- ...

. She was invited to the historic Film und Foto exhibition in 1929 in Stuttgart where her works were massively exhibited. This places her photographs in the modernist movement of the ''

Neues Sehen The ''Neues Sehen'', also known as New Vision or ''Neue Optik'', was a movement, not specifically restricted to photography, which was developed in the 1920s. The movement was directly related to the principles of the Bauhaus. ''Neues Sehen'' con ...

'' (new vision). As Nazism progressed in Germany, the Atelier Stone was transferred to Brussels in 1931 (Sasha Stone parents were Jews from Russia ). She took industrial photographs and portraits of artists for the opera house

La Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (, ; , ; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National Opera of Belgium, a federal institution, takes the name of this theatre in which it is ho ...

. She also practiced film set photography for

Henri Storck Henri Storck (5 September 1907 – 17 September 1999) was a Belgian writer, filmmaker and documentarist. In 1933, he directed, with Joris Ivens, '' Misère au Borinage'', a film about the miners in the Borinage area. The film was banned in sever ...

and

Joris Ivens Georg Henri Anton "Joris" Ivens (18 November 1898 – 28 June 1989) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker. Among the notable films he directed or co-directed are '' A Tale of the Wind'', ''The Spanish Earth'', ''Rain'', ''...A Valparaiso'', '' Misèr ...

. Stone practiced studio photography in Brussels. She composed nudes that can be found in the portfolio "25 NUES FEMMES DE SASHA STONE" printed in 100 numbered copies; and containing 25 original silver gelatin prints each. These nude studies are part of the

straight photography Pure photography or straight photography refers to photography that attempts to depict a scene or subject in sharp focus and detail, in accordance with the qualities that distinguish photography from other visual media, particularly painting. Orig ...

movement. Some Cami Stone prints are signed "Cami Stone";, others "Stone" or even "S. Stone" (her husband's initial). All of these prints have the copyright stamp of Cami Stone on the back. The most frequently presented nude study from this portfolio is "Plate 13" by Cami Stone. Sasha and Cami divorced in 1939. Over 800 photos by the Atelier Stone that were mostly made in Berlin between 1925 and 1930, reappeared in the early 2000s. Protected by Cami Stone's family during the Second World War, the photographs found are unique: the glass plate negatives no longer exist as Cami Stone had to sell them after the war to recover the silver salts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Cami 1892 births 1975 deaths Belgian women photographers People from Vilvoorde 20th-century Belgian photographers